Boxing Day Disaster
So many nights I'd sit by my window
Lily figured that if she had to listen to her parents fighting, then why was she even bothering to try and sleep?
It was the Christmas holidays. Neither of her siblings had arrived yet, and honestly, Lily was pretty sure her parents had both forgotten she was here. Usually, they had this big, old, ugly house all to themselves, and all the privacy in the world to argue with one another. Except tonight, Lily could hear their passive-aggressive arguing echoing through the house, as though she were standing in the same room.
'My mother would have kicked my arse if I did that, Harry.'
'Well, not all of us had such adoring mothers, Ginevra.'
Lily's dad always played the 'dead parents' card when he was pissed off. She was sure he didn't even realise he was doing it — it wasn't like Dad to be exploitative. She dropped her head back against the wall of her bay window and gazed out across the vast garden. The moonlight lit up the land and reflected off the surface of the stream that ran along the edge of the garden. Lily was sure she might have appreciated it more if it weren't for the angry voices downstairs; the garden had always been her favourite part of the house.
Maybe her parents had simply waited until the boys had moved out, and until she was of age, to start fighting because she couldn't remember them ever doing so when she was younger. Yet this was the third night in a row she'd sat by the window and tried to escape her parents' constant bickering, seemingly with no success.
It was just going to be another night of Lily not being able to sleep, even once they'd gone to bed and the house had turned silent. She shifted and pulled a book on Ancient Runes off the haphazardly stacked pile at her feet. It was fairly advanced; she was hoping that the mental strain it would take to read the bloody thing would either A) drown out her parents, or B) send her to sleep.
Alone in the dark
Surprisingly, it helped a lot; the book drew her in with dark and ancient rituals that she'd never seen before until she heard a broken sob in the hallway. Her head snapped up at the sudden sound and she closed the book silently. Fear invading her mind, she crept across to her slightly ajar door, only to find that her father was on the landing. Mum was nowhere to be seen, but Dad was trying to stifle sobs alone in the dimly lit corridor. Lily had never seen her dad cry — not really. She'd seen him get a bit sniffly at films, or get watery eyes when she was upset, but this was different. Her dad was leaning against the small table; his arms were shaking as he looked down at the floor. Lily watched him for a long moment, wondering whether it might be best to leave the room and see if he was okay, but eventually, he sniffed and straightened up.
Her dad's fingers trailed along the dusty table top and then stopped at the last photo. Lily knew that photo; that photo was the only one on display in the house of her grandparents — her dad's parents. She watched as he lifted it up in the darkness and put his forehead against it.
'You light up my life.' Her father's voice was calmer than Lily had expected, but it was just a whisper. 'Goodnight, Mum and Dad.'
He placed it carefully back on the surface, pushing it back into the exact same spot it had been once before, and Lily watched as he walked towards his room. Her dad flicked the light switch as he disappeared through the open door, and Lily was left in complete darkness.
She exhaled slowly, not entirely sure she'd even been breathing whilst she'd spied on her father. Closing the cracked open door of her bedroom, Lily found her heart aching. What would her father's life have been like if he had grown up with his parents?
So many dreams I kept deep inside me
Lily had a plan.
She hadn't told a soul. It was a crazy plan and it would probably never work, but she was willing to try. Besides, if it in some way made her dad happy, it would all be worth it.
Early on Boxing Day morning, Lily packed a bag full of questionable items (including a knife, a lizard's tongue, and some monkshood) and Apparated to Godric's Hollow. She always felt cold when she was here. It didn't matter that she was in about five layers of clothing; she was still cold. At a guess, she thought it might be an emotional thing, what with standing in the village where her grandparents were murdered.
Not wanting to be distracted, she heaved her bag higher up onto her shoulders and walked in the direction of the graveyard. She left nothing but footprints behind her in the thin layer of snow.
The plan in her head wasn't as legal as she'd hoped, but it wasn't permanent necromancy — more like a temporary spell so that her father could speak to his parents one last time. Lily thought it was a far better Christmas present than the colour-changing socks that she'd given her dad yesterday. Thankfully, Godric's Hollow was quiet at 5:37am, and because the gates were still locked, Lily squeezed through the gap in the fence to get into the graveyard. No one would be around until seven — she hoped — which meant she should have plenty of time to set up.
Adrift on the water
Merlin, it was more complex in reality than on paper. What was worse was that Lily's time was running out. She hastily scratched markings into the gravestones with chalk as her potion came to boil to her left. Her fingers were frozen; she'd had to take her gloves off to do all the fiddly preparation, and now she couldn't feel them.
Lily was nearly done, though.
She added dried, ground monkshood to the potion, which released a mushroom cloud of grimey blue smoke, and then poured it over the burnt markings in the ground that now surrounded her paternal grandparents' graves. Lily swallowed; the last step needed her blood, and she found herself shaky and reluctant as she held the knife to the palm of her hand. She knew this would give her father twenty-four hours with his parents again, but slicing into her own skin hadn't been her idea of a perfect Christmas.
'Lily, stop!'
She swore, knowing that voice anywhere. 'For Merlin's sake, Albus. Why couldn't you have just slept in for once?'
Her older brother had always been an early riser. Even as a teenager, he'd never gone through a sleep-til-two-pm stage, which Lily thought was complete madness. Then again, it now seemed to fit with his up-all-hours schedule, thanks to his job as a Healer.
Albus was forcing himself through the gap she'd slipped easily through two hours before. The flimsy wooden fencing bent and cracked at the strength he was using, but he was really struggling.
'Lily, I saw your plans,' he cried, his voice strained. 'You can't do dark magic like that. It always has consequences.'
'I know, Albus,' she retorted. 'I'm not stupid.'
He yelped as he fell through the gap and hit the floor hard. 'On the contrary, you're doing something unbelievably stupid.'
Lily scoffed; surely, Albus knew he was just making her mad. She pressed the knife hard against her skin as the skinny figure of her brother pushed himself to his feet. He was going to try and stop her no matter what. Albus was running towards her, shoes squelching in the mushy mix of mud and snow. She was doing this for Dad; Lily muttered a sorry and cut deep into her hand. It stung, but she turned, ignoring her brother and the sounds of him closing in on her, and slammed her hand against the activation rune.
Finally, a chance to say hey, I love you
When Lily regained consciousness, staring up at the grey sky, she groaned loudly. The weather was still cold and crisp as she sat up.
'How could you possibly think that was a good idea?'
Albus' voice came from her left and she turned towards it. He was lying in the mud and snow, his hand against a cut on his head, scowling at her.
'As a consequence of your stupidity, I think I might get a concussion, and you knocked yourself out,' he said. 'Way to go, little sis.'
'Shut up,' Lily muttered, looking around for any signs of her dead grandparents. 'Did it work? Are they here?'
'No, genius. It did not work.'
Lily felt her heart plummet, a sick feeling settling in her stomach as she got to her feet and turned to her grandparents' graves. Only she wasn't greeted by their gravestones; she was greeted by an empty patch of grass. That didn't make sense; how could she have destroyed the gravestones?
'...I mean, I get that you were trying to do something nice and all, but this was reckless. It was stupid; it was —'
'Albus, just stop talking for one second and look,' Lily interrupted, pointing to the empty space. 'Where have the gravestones gone?'
Albus looked up from where he was drying himself off with his wand and then blinked slowly. Lily, admittedly, loved seeing him so confused; Albus, after all, was the clever sibling. He opened and closed his mouth several times, clearly not quite figuring out exactly what he should say in response to the vanishing gravestones.
'That doesn't make any sense,' Albus stammered, inspecting the surroundings carefully. 'Your things — they're all gone.'
'Maybe whilst we were unconscious…'
'I was never unconscious, and you were only out for a matter of seconds,' he said.
Neither of the two Potter siblings could find Lily's bag anywhere, nor could they find their paternal grandparents' graves — which Albus had insisted must be around here somewhere. Lily dragged her feet as they walked through the now-open gates, upset that she had failed in her attempt to help her father. They were walking back in complete silence; Albus was probably secretly planning a lecture for her, and she was just pissed off. Just as they passed the main street in the village, something caught Lily's eye. She stopped dead; Albus didn't even notice and continued walking.
The house that had once lay in ruins with a plaque outside had been restored to its former glory. Upon closer inspection, Lily noticed that the plaque was also gone.
'Albus,' she called, running after him. 'Albus, stop!'
She caught up with him just outside the small corner post office and grabbed his arm, pulling him back to face her. 'There's something wrong — the house, their house, it's —'
Albus' blue eyes widened; he was staring over her shoulder at the newspaper stand in the post office window. 'Oh, Merlin's balls.'
Lily frowned and turned around, following his gaze. For a long moment, she wasn't sure what he was looking at until she spotted it. December 26th 1976 — that was the date printed at the top of the Muggle newspaper The Telegraph. She swore once, twice, and then three more times.
'What were you thinking?' Albus muttered, his face in his hands.
'I wasn't — I didn't —' Lily had no idea what to say; this had not been her intention at all. 'All I was thinking was that it would be nice if Dad got to see them again and finally say I love you to them for the first time in his life.'
'I know, but' — Albus sighed, straightening up with his hands in his hair — 'this couldn't have happened at a worse time. I mean, honestly, Lily, your timing is appalling. Scorpius and I are moving into a new house next week; he's going to go spare.'
Lily rolled her eyes. 'Bigger picture, Albus Severus Potter. We are stuck in 1976!'
'I don't know what to do.'
Lily frowned, pacing in the snow as she thought, a million ideas shooting through her head. It was wrong; it had all gone so wrong, and yet she couldn't help but think that they'd been gifted with an opportunity. The two of them literally had lives in their hands; they had knowledge and insight; they had a chance that people would die for. Albus' face paled when Lily grinned widely and turned on her heel, striding towards a safe Apparation point.
She knew exactly what to do.
It can't be wrong
When it feels so right
QLFC, Season 5, Round 10: CHASER 3: 1970's: You Light Up My Life — Debby Boone
Optional Prompts: Godric's Hollow / (dialogue) "How could you possibly think that was a good idea?" /(dialogue) "This couldn't have happened at a worse time."
Wordcount: 2143